Massacre in Opelousas

Date:

Mon, 1868-09-28

On this date in 1868, the Opelousas massacre occurred. That city in Louisiana was the site where local Blacks lost their lives by violent whites (many of them Confederate veterans and prominent citizens).

The slaughter started when three local whites beat up an 18-year old man named Emerson Bentley, a white editor (and non-Louisianan) of the local Republican newspaper and a teacher with the Freedmen's Bureau. Reacting to Bentley's beating, local Blacks came to his rescue. The sheriff arrested 12, who were taken from jail and hung that night.

In the next few days, bands of armed whites scoured the countryside and killed Blacks in what was described as a “Negro hunt” similar to one which had occurred outside of Shreveport, Louisiana, a short time before. It is estimated that 200 blacks were killed in the fields and swamps surrounding Opelousas, Louisiana.